This summer I travelled to a lesser known part of the world, Eastern Turkey.To be more exact the area around Lake Van and further South close to the Syrian border.We flew from Europe to Istanbul and without a long layover directly to Van (total duration less than 7h).There we rented a car and drove around Lake Van. The lake itself is very beautiful and you can swim in it although it feels very strange since it has a very high pH (it feels like soap on your skin). There are old Armenian churches like on the island of Akdamar. We went to see Ararat the highest mountain of Turkey and we hiked the second highest one (Süphan Dagi, 4058m) which is right by Lake Van and offers amazing views on it. Quite a challenging hike though.Nemrut Crater is another amazing sight, especially for sunrise. There are even brown bears there, but we didn't see any.The second part of our trip took us further South to Mardin, an ancient city on a hill with churches and mosques. From there we took a trip to the Syrian border and Midyat another ancient city.There were several military checkpoints during our trip, but they never caused any problems. It is generally very safe, even at the Syrian border. The food is typical Turkish food. Prices are cheap and nobody tries to rip you off because there are barely any Western tourists. People rarely speak English.I have pictures on my phone so I can't post any right now, but I might later. Just google the places I listed and see for yourself.
>>2708360>People rarely speak English.How do you get around unless you speak Turkish? Otherwise it sounds very tempting.
>>2708360This is all at a high altitude, right? My neighbors here in Colorado have a daughter who spent several years living in Turkey, she enjoyed it but that was before the Turkish economy went to shit.What was your average daily cost on the ground? Turkish inflation is so bad that prices in USD remain stubbornly high even with a steadily weakening lira. Numbeo's price index shows $9 as typical for an inexpensive restaurant meal, that's $30/day in food alone. Seeing a $44 room near the M11 metro in Istanbul reviewed as "the worst hotel experience of your life" doesn't make me keen on the country one bit...and it's more the rule than the exception at that price point. Most streets look lifeless and desolate, rather decrepit. With value-for-cost as bad as it is in the country, I decided to skip Turkey entirely and continue on to Southeast Asia for my ten-month "vacation" trip.
>>2711636>Most streets look lifeless and desolateIstanbul has issues, but that's really not one of them
>>2711731Yeah, reckon I could've transferred to a city bus which goes to the city center instead of looking into something along the airport metro line. Georgia offers a much bigger selection of budget rooms in the $20/night price range than Turkey, and it also has plenty of interesting topography to explore. If anything it looks more beautiful than the scrubby aridity of Turkey.
>>2708360>Just google the places I listed and see for yourself.grim
>>2713359kek, so many low-effort travel posters on this forum
